Oregon's top
FBI official confirmed this morning that he is retiring after a two-year run at the helm of the Portland Division.

"I am retiring
at the end of this month to take a position in the private sector," said
Special Agent in Charge Gregory A. Fowler in a prepared statement to The
Oregonian.

Fowler
announced his plans to his staff Tuesday, saying he was accepting a job with
Nike as director of investigations. He would not comment Wednesday about where
he was going to work.

"I have been
privileged to lead the men and women of the FBI's Portland Field Office, and
will always be proud of their unyielding dedication to keeping Oregon and the
country safe," Fowler said in his statement.

The FBI named
Fowler as special agent in charge of the Portland Division in summer 2011 after a hitch as chief of counterterrorism in the New York Division.

Fowler entered
duty with the bureau in April 1988, soon specializing in drug and organized
crime investigations in New York, as a supervisor at FBI headquarters in
Washington, D.C., and in Seattle.

The former U.S. Marine served a
stretch of temporary duty in Iraq beginning in summer 2004, where he
worked out of Baghdad as the deputy on-scene commander in support of Operation
Iraqi Freedom.

He went to work
as assistant special agent in charge of the Chicago Division in 2005, where he
headed counterterrorism operations and its Joint Terrorism Task Force.